A NEW MODEL OF MARS AS A FORMER CAPTURED SATELLITE:
BI-MODAL DISTRIBUTION OF KEY FEATURES
DUE TO ANCIENT TIDAL STRESS?
Richard C. Hoagland
(Principal Investigator, Enterprise Mission)
Michael Bara
(Executive Director, Formal Action Committee on Extraterrestrial Studies).
ABSTRACT
Conventional models of Mars, based on measurements by initial Mariner unmanned spacecraft,
found an arid, apparently ancient environment without current liquid water. This prompted subsequent, highly negative assessments regarding Mars’ history, and the difficulty for the origin
and/or evolution of higher forms of life. Later, the unmanned Viking missions (as well as the
1997 Pathfinder Lander) seemed to confirm this barren model. Complex, sometimes contradictory geologic theories to explain this desolate Mars environment have been proposed, based on a
wide variety of observed surface phenomena and features. A new model that reconciles major
puzzling contradictions among past models is now put forth, using new observations from MGS
high-resolution images of Mars and a reevaluation of certain Viking era experiments. Smallscale surface features are identified which, it is proposed, are the direct product of wide spread
ancient and recent bursts of subsurface liquid water. These water “stains” are shown to cluster
(beyond statistical chance) in an unmistakable tidally-determined, bi-modal distribution on the
planet: centered near the Tharsis and antipodal Arabia “bulges.” A revaluation of Mars ancient
history is therefore proposed, suggesting that Mars (well after solar system formation) was captured into synchronous orbital lock with a larger planetary companion (“Planet V”), accounting
for the clustering of present day water bursts around the former beds of two bi-modally distributed “Mars ancient oceans” as a direct result. The current Tharsis and Arabia mantle uplifts are
shown to be an inevitable additional fossil signature of such former tidal stresses, induced by a
close gravitational relationship with Planet V. Other heretofore inexplicable Martian surface features are shown to be consistent with such a simple "tidal model": Valles Marineris (as an eroded
ancient tidal bore, formed immediately post-capture); the presence of the extremely flat terrain
covering the northern hemisphere (via deposited sediments from the once tidally supported
oceans, when released); and the current trench or "moat" around the Tharsis bulge (from relaxation of Tharsis back into the mantle, after tidal lock was broken). The long-mysterious “Line of
Dichotomy” is explained as a remnant of a “blast wave” of debris from this sudden severing of
the former orbital lock relationship with Planet V, due to either a catastrophic collision or explosion. Chemical signatures of this extraordinary destruction event on Mars are shown to be consistent with the model; including the distribution of olivine preferentially below the line of dichotomy; the presence of primitive mantle and core materials such as iron and sulfur in unusual
abundance on Mars surface; and the concentration of proposed “water stains” in areas bereft of
olivine. Mars unusual magnetic field “striping” is now shown to be another unique southern
hemisphere signature of this destruction event, caused by standing P and S waves reverberating
through the planet’s crust as a result of the massive simultaneous impacts from Planet V debris.
Recently published research showing unprecedented outflow channels from the Tharsis and Ara-
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TIDAL BULGES ON MARS: R.C. Hoagland and M. H. Bara
bia bulges are shown to be consistent with the sudden relaxation of the two tidal oceans, as is the
sculpting of huge amounts of material by fluvial processes north of the Arabia bulge. Two possible mechanisms for the destruction of Planet V and the breaking of this tidal lock are outlined.
Finally, a new timeline for Mars geologic evolution is proposed that is consistent with these observations, placing these events between capture ~500 MYA and the destruction of Planet V at
65 MYA.
Introduction: Man’s fascination with
Mars has led to many fanciful and romantic
notions about the planet’s genesis. Early
popular (and even some scientific) speculations focused on a planet populated by exotic
creatures if not warring advanced civilizations; these were based in large part on
Lowell’s turn-of-the-Century model of a
harsh and frigid Mars, one that was still habitable, though dying. It was not until the
1964 Mariner 4 mission that the general public and the scientific community got their first
close-up view of the real Mars -- as Mariner 4
flew by at a distance of 6,118 miles. The 21
images telemetered back to JPL surprisingly
revealed a cratered terrain more akin to the
lifeless lunar surface than anything on Earth.
With these first insitu spacecraft Mars data,
hopes for finding anything approaching another “Earth” elsewhere in this solar system
were permanently dashed. Subsequent missions confirmed that the Martian atmosphere
was much too thin and the temperatures too
low to allow for the presence of surface liquid
water, eliminating almost any remaining hope
of finding current life.
Eleven years later, biology experiments
conducted in 1976 by the Viking Landers (including one termed the Labeled Release Experiment, or LRE), produced positive results
for life bearing organisms in the samples.1
However, these findings were directly contradicted by other instruments’ results, which
indicated that the biology data were “false
positives,” generated by a non-biological
chemical reaction with the Martian soil.2
Among the principal reasons cited for consensus against the LRE was the absence of
2
available liquid water on the Martian surface
– a key prerequisite for life. This general
dismissal of the LRE results was immediately
challenged by the LRE’s Principal Investigator, Gilbert Levin. Levin3 showed that liquid
water could flow on the present day Martian
surface, if the available water was restricted
to the lower 1-3 km of atmosphere, rather
than being evenly distributed throughout its
depth. Meteorological data from Mars Pathfinder later confirmed the Levin model for
atmospheric water distribution.4
One remarkable development in this regard has been the rediscovery of 25-year-old
“lost” NASA data from Levin’s own experiment. Joseph Miller, a neurobiologist at the
University of Southern California, recently
presented evidence that the radioactive C02
release that was the heart of Levin’s experiment exhibited a clear 24.66-hour Martian
diurnal cycle – precisely the circadian rhythm
to be expected of living Martian microbes in
the soil.5 If confirmed, this would strongly
indicate current microbial organisms on Mars
– despite a quarter-century of disclaimers and
the apparent dearth of liquid water.
In striking contrast to the current apparent
aridity of Mars, analysis of images from
Mariner 9 and Viking’s later Orbiters did reveal evidence of large and catastrophic ancient water flows on Mars. They also revealed evidence of a violent geological past -with huge volcanoes, extensive cratering in
the southern hemisphere, and a massive canyon system (Valles Marineris) stretching almost one-quarter of the way around the
planet.
Despite evidence of wide-spread water
flows on Mars, the general scientific consensus now is that any liquid water on the planet
has been confined to the very distant past
(circa 3 plus billion years -- GYA), when a
much denser atmosphere allowed it to flow
freely across the surface. The presence of
large numbers of eroded craters in the south is
cited as proof that the planet has been geolog-
Figure 1 - MOLA colorized image of Mars showing
the heavily cratered southern highlands (yellow and
orange) and the smooth, sparsely cratered northern
lowlands (blue and green).
ically dead for at least 3 billion years -- the
time since the last “heavy bombardment” of
the inner solar system.6
Other surface features present more difficult problems for geologists. There are vast
differences in crater densities between the
northern and southern planetary hemispheres.
In the North, medium-sized craters are rarely
seen, with significant distances between
them. This is in distinct contrast with the
South, where craters are so numerous that
they overlap each other, making it difficult to
distinguish between individual impacts. This
stark difference is mysteriously emphasized
by a “Line of Dichotomy”: a separation line
running around the circumference of the
planet at about a 35-degree angle to the Equator. The southern, heavily cratered side of the
line, is also (mysteriously) nearly 30 kilome-
ters (on average) higher than the northern
sparsely cratered lowlands.
Somewhat limited by existing theories of
solar system formation, planetary geologists
have tried to explain these major discrepancies on Mars in terms of familiar models.
Since the northern hemisphere accounts for
50% of the land mass but only 7% of the craters, the latest idea is that Mars must have lost
its “primordial crust” in the northern hemisphere to an ancient period of “vigorous convection and high heat flow”7 early in Martian
history, at a time well after the last heavy
bombardment period. However, the lack of
smaller craters on the northern plains (based
on relative dating of similar cratering statistics from the Moon) paradoxically implies a
relatively recent date for this proposed
“event.”
An Alternative Model of Solar System
Evolution -- In 1978, Naval Observatory astronomer and celestial mechanics expert,
Thomas Van Flandern, put forth the idea
(based on an original model by Olbers) that a
relatively recent “exploded planet” in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter was responsible for the origins of most comets and
asteroids in the solar system.8 This notion,
called the Exploded Planet Hypothesis
(EPH)9, has found little support in the planetary science community, but its lines of evidence since its initial publication over twenty
years ago have become increasingly compelling. Part and parcel to this hypothesis is the
idea that half Mars visible surface was devastated by this proposed explosion event, neatly
accounting for the cratering dichotomy between the northern and southern hemispheres,
and the loss of a once dense and possibly life
sustaining atmosphere.
More recently, writer Graham Hancock
has popularized an alternative catastrophic
theory, which supports the conventional view
that the north was stripped of several layers of
primordial crust.10 Hancock argues that a
3
TIDAL BULGES ON MARS: R.C. Hoagland and M. H. Bara
large comet or planetoid somehow wandered
into the Roche limit zone of Mars and was
drawn into the planet in the Hellas basin, effectively tearing away the older surface of the
northern hemisphere via secondary bombardment, and depositing the remnants of its
shattered bulk into the southern highlands.
Hancock’s idea is based on Donald W. Patten
and Samuel L. Windsor’s research,11 who
surmise that this object was in fact a “rogue
planet” they call “Astra,” described in their
book “The Scars of Mars.” There are however numerous problems with the “Astra”
concept – for instance, it cannot account for
the presence of the asteroid belt, while the
EPH does so intrinsically. The authors of this
paper believe that the EPH is the much
stronger hypothesis (if appropriately modified), and that it has already demonstrated a
capacity to survive serious falsification efforts, qualities not shared by “Astra.”
Extension of the EPH – Recently, Van
Flandern has extended the EPH to include the
notion that several “planets” (Pluto, Mercury,
and Mars) are actually former moons of current or destroyed planets. Evidence to support this hypothesis is extensive, but for our
purposes we will focus exclusively on the
evidence for Mars. Of these lines of evidence, we will address here only a few as
relevant to our proposal. A more complete
analysis will be left to a follow–on paper.
Some of the evidence, as compiled by Van
Flandern:
4
•
Mars is much less massive than any
planet not itself suspected of being a
former moon
•
The orbit of Mars is more elliptical
than any other major planet (Pluto
notwithstanding)
•
Its spin is slower than larger planets,
except where a massive moon has intervened
•
It possesses a large offset of center of
figure from the center of mass
•
The shape is not in equilibrium with
its current spin
•
The “crustal dichotomy” boundary is
nearly a great circle
•
The northern hemisphere has a
smooth, 1-km[sic]-thick crust; the southern crust is over 20-km thick
•
Crustal thickness in the south decreases gradually toward the crustal
dichotomy boundary
•
Lobate scarps occur at the boundary
divide, compressed perpendicular to
the boundary
•
Huge volcanoes arose where uplift
pressure from mass redistribution is
maximal
•
A sudden geographic pole shift of order 90° occurred
•
Much of the original atmosphere has
been lost
•
A sudden, massive flood with no obvious source occurred
•
Xe129, a product of nuclear fission, has
an excess abundance on Mars
Previous to this, Dorman & Woolfson
(1977), writing in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, resented a model called “the Capture Theory of
Planetary Formation.” They proposed that
Mars was once an original (not captured)
moon of one of two colliding “protoplanets”
in the early accretion solar system phase.12
They even provided one specific piece of evidence to support their idea that Mars began as
such a satellite: Mars density is much closer
to that of some of the Galilean satellites than
it is to Venus, the least dense inner planet.
This implies a genesis more in common with
Io, Europa and Earth’s Moon than with the
terrestrial planets.
To quote Woolfson (1984): “As part of
the [Capture Theory] scenario, it has been
suggested that Mars was originally a satellite
of one of the colliding planets. The densities
of the terrestrial bodies and some larger satellites are shown in support of this suggestion
(Figure 2). Connell & Woolfson (1983) have
ascribed the hemispherical asymmetry of
Mars, like that of the Moon, to abrasion by
high-speed ejecta from the planetary collision
of that face of the satellite turned toward its
primary. This will give rise to a thinning of
the crust and for Mars such features as the
centre-of-mass centre of figure offset are well
explained by this. If Mars as a satellite was
in synchronous rotation about its primary then
this mechanism would suggest that its spin
axis should be contained in the plane of
asymmetry, but it is actually 55 degrees [the
35 degree line of dichotomy, minus 90 degrees] to that plane [emphasis added].”
Van Flandern’s EPH Model proposes that
there were formerly two massive planetary
bodies in the current orbits of Mars and the
Asteroid Belt, respectively. Both exploded.
The first (Planet K) detonated in the orbit of
the current Belt “several hundred million
years ago.” The second (Planet V) exploded
near the present day orbit of Mars, some 65
million years ago (MYA). In Van Flandern’s
theory, additional impact damage was done to
Mars when a much smaller second former
moon of Planet V exploded in Mars vicinity
3.2 MYA. In our modification of the EPH,
we will show that it is not necessary to invoke
a literal planetary “explosion” to produce all
the subsequent effects Van Flandern has proposed, including the formation of asteroids
and comets, and the escape of most of the remaining mass from solar influence. In doing
so, we will draw upon new data not available
when Van Flandern originally formulated his
EPH ideas, specifically, observations of certain Extra Solar planets that follow orbits
similar to what we are proposing led to Mars
initial capture as a satellite, and then the destruction of its “foster parent,” Planet V.
The relevance of water – If Mars, prior to
its capture (in our model) formerly had a
denser atmosphere that provided for liquid
water on the surface, it is likely that this water
– dependent on the amount -- was distributed
in lakes or oceans, much as it is here on
Earth. If this was the case, there should still
be pockets of this water trapped beneath those
former lake or ocean beds, relatively close to
the surface, dependent on how long ago the
water actually flowed. If extensive “fields”
of this frozen or (sometimes) liquid water
were discovered near the surface, this would
strongly imply such former “lakes” or
“oceans” were the source.
Besides Levin’s atmospheric model, the
best evidence for current liquid water near the
surface of Mars (until recently) was provided
by Dr. Leonard Martin of the Lowell Observatory. Martin, in 1980, compared two images of Mars taken from the Viking Orbiters
that clearly showed an erupting water spout.13
This implied active geothermal heating of a
source of water not too far below the current
Martian surface.
In June 2000, Michael Malin and Ken
Edgett of MSSS published a paper in Science14, proposing that grooved features on
cliffs and gullies on Mars were fossil evidence of prior erosive runoff from liquid water. They placed the events as recently as 1
MYA, but conceded the bursts could also include present day occurrences.
5
TIDAL BULGES ON MARS: R.C. Hoagland and M. H. Bara
cally map the locations of these “seep” images relative to Mars surface coordinates, to
see if there was a global pattern to their distribution. As a control, they also mapped
randomly-selected “non-stain” images until a
representative and statistically valid sampling
had been completed.
Figure 3 – Proposed fossilized water runoff channels.
(MSSS/NASA)
In 1998, one of a growing number of “independent researchers,” Byran Butcher, noticed and published on the Internet a curious
“dark area.” He casually suggested it might
be “a coffee stain, water, or a shadow.”15 In
July 2000, the authors published a much more
specific model, based on an MOC image of
an unusually dark, highly elongated “stain”
emanating from an exterior point source on a
crater wall, proposing that it was a current
water flow consistent with the model Malin
and Edgett had put forth a few days earlier.16
They quickly found numerous additional examples.
Figure 4 – Proposed point source liquid water burst
image from MO4-00072 (MSSS/NASA)
Subsequent to this, Palermo, England and
Moore also found that surface “stains” were
inconsistent with aeolian features, mass wasting or other non-fluvial processes.17 At the
suggestion of one of the authors (Hoagland),
Palermo et-al then proceeded to systemati6
Immediately, two striking global patterns
emerged: both pointing to present day liquid
water as a source of the “stains” or “seepages.” In the first pattern, the map showed
that seepage images seem to appear preferentially near equatorial latitudes, mostly between 30 degrees North and South; none were
found above 40 degrees North and South.
This implies that the phenomenon is restricted
to warmer areas of Mars, which would be expected if these were truly water flows. An
equatorial pattern is also inconsistent with the
“dust avalanche” model put forth by Malin
and NASA as an explanation for these features.18
The second, more important pattern discovered was that the water flows seemed to
cluster preferentially around two pronounced
geological features on the Martian surface:
the Tharsis and Arabia mantle uplifts
(“bulges” -- Figure 5). The theoretical factors
behind this second (and very pronounced) bimodal “stain” distribution pattern are the primary subjects of this paper.
Mars as a Tidal Locked Moon of a
Companion Body – The authors are proposing in this paper that Mars, at some point earlier in solar system history, was captured by
one of two larger planetary bodies orbiting
near the present day orbit of Mars. This scenario is an extension of the Capture Theory
model of solar system formation put forth by
Dorman & Woolfson (1977), as well as Van
Flandern’s Exploded Planet Hypothesis
(1978). It is also based on current observations of significantly elliptical orbits for many
newly-discovered Extra Solar planets around
nearby stars, as reported by Butler, et-al.19
One relevant example is the Jupiter-massed
planet orbiting the nearby K-type star, Epsilon Eridani. With an orbital period of 6.9
years, an orbital eccentricity of 0.6, and an
average distance from its star of 3.4 astronomical units (AU), this planet’s orbit would
take it as far out as Jupiter and as close as
Mars if it orbited in our own solar system.20
It is our proposal that two previous planets
in the vast “gap” between the current orbits of
Jupiter and Mars, with orbital eccentricities
far less than the Epsilon Eridani planet, after
several billion years were gradually perturbed
into a series of close encounters. This eventually resulted in the low-probability but possible “three-body capture” of a third object,
the formerly freely orbiting Mars, and millions of years later, the actual collision of the
two larger planets. As noted, such theoretical
former solar system members have been referred to as “Planet K” and “Planet V” in Van
Flandern’s original EPH model, the latter estimated to possess approximately 4-5 Earth
masses.
We propose that, like theoretical models
invoked now to explain some Extra Solar
System observations of formerly interacting
planets,21 a rare multi-planet encounter occurred late in solar system history between
two planets formerly occupying the current
gap between Jupiter and Mars: two massive
terrestrial planets termed “K” and “V.” As a
result, Mars was robbed of a critical portion
of its solar angular momentum, allowing capture in an extreme elliptical orbit as a new
satellite of Planet V.
An alternative scenario involves only one
former solar system member – Planet V.
Given the parameters of existing solar system members -- distance, density, and mass,
especially Mars’ low density compared to the
other terrestrial planets (Figure 2) -- it seems
reasonable to assume that if two additional
Earth-massed planets had formed between
Jupiter and Mars, they would have incorporated significantly more water than did Earth.
And, given the increased likelihood of multiple glancing collisions in the early planetesimal phase for this region of the solar system,22 they probably possessed multiple natural satellites as well. An encounter of Mars
with such a system, billions of years after its
formation (as we are proposing), would thus
have a reasonable probability of encountering
a satellite as well. This type of encounter has
a much higher probability of happening than
the previous scenario presented (the threebody interaction of Planet K, Planet V, and
Mars). But, this second type of encounter
could also result in Mars being captured by
Planet V – via the ejection of one of Planet
V’s own moons. Calculations examining
similar scenarios have been performed in
connection with the anomalous Neptune system – which consists now of a major planetsized satellite (Triton) in retrograde orbit, and
a smaller moon (Nereid) in a highly elliptical
one. This has been viewed for years as
prima-facie evidence for a highly unusual
Neptune encounter earlier in solar system history with an outside object in heliocentric orbit, which reversed Triton’s orbit and ejected
a previous moon from the system entirely.
That “escaped satellite” is now known as
“Pluto.”23
Regardless of the precise methodology of
capture, the subsequent, strong tidal relationship between Mars and the more massive
Planet V (Figure 6) would have resulted in a
further, rapid loss of Mars spin angular momentum, from a “free” rotation period in solar
orbit on the order of ~12 hours down to the
presently observed ~24. This estimate is
based on models of Earth’s primordial rotation slowed by early lunar tides ( Figure 7). 24
In the model, inevitable tidal evolution not
only ultimately circularized Mars orbit
around Planet V, it resulted in Mars finally
rotating/revolving around Planet V synchronously, in approximately 24 hours -- with one
7
TIDAL BULGES ON MARS: R.C. Hoagland and M. H. Bara
side always facing Planet V, as Earth’s Moon
does today.
It is the authors’ central proposal in this
paper that it was this verifiable “Mars tidal
lock relationship” with Planet V that accounts
for a host of previously inexplicable and even
contradictory Martian surface features, that
otherwise will remain perpetually mysterious.
This begins with the otherwise baffling
present-day Tharsis and Arabia antipodal uplifts on the planet, which are located precisely
180 degrees opposite (Figures 8 and 9). In
this tidal model, the Tharsis “bulge” -- a huge
upwelling in the mantle and crust of Mars,
unique in the solar system – is explained as a
combination of the extended gravitational
tidal influence of the larger Planet V acting
for a significant period of time on that hemisphere, in concert with pre-existing internal
mantle upwellings. As would be expected
from such a tidal situation, a smaller but still
significant “anti-bulge” would inevitably be
raised at the antipodal location to Tharsis -which accounts for the Arabia uplift precisely
180 degrees around the planet.
All formerly fluid or partially fluid bodies
in the solar system, including the inner moons
of Jupiter and Saturn, show signs of such tidal
evolution (Figure 10). Io, in particular, has
significant bi-modal tidal bulges, similar to
the model we are proposing now for Mars.25
We additionally postulate that other heretofore inexplicable geologic features, such as
Valles Marineris and the Elysium Mons, were
also an extended result of this former tidal
mechanism. The authors also propose that,
when this tidal lock relationship was severed
-- by the events directly leading to the destruction of Planet V -- Mars rotational polar
axis obliquity, relative to the plane of its satellite orbit, dramatically shifted. This sudden
obliquity shift, as part of this rapidly timed
sequence of events, is responsible in the
model for the apparent discrepancy of the
“Line of Dichotomy” blast wave being in8
clined about 55 degrees to that rotational axis
-- instead of being focused on the Tharsis region itself (see details, below).
Original capture model and consequences – After capture, as this close orbital
relationship between Mars and Planet V
evolved and the orbit circularized over hundreds of thousands or even millions of years,
any surface water of oceanic volume would
have “sloshed” back and forth across the surface of Mars twice every Martian “day,” just
as lunar tides do here on Earth. We assert,
based on this intrinsic tidal process, that Mars
at the time of capture had to have been a
“warm, wet world” with both a denser atmosphere and a copious supply of flowing liquid
water, otherwise it would not evidence the
major surface signatures of tidal movement
we will demonstrate.
But first: as an intrinsic aspect of this
model, we begin by proposing that the puzzling “mantle uplift” of Tharsis began long
before this dynamic capture sequence culminated. Once Mars was captured and oriented
with the pre-capture “heavy side” (Tharsis)
pointed “down” (toward Planet V), the uplift
process was then further and extensively
augmented by the “stretching” gravitational
forces of Planet V close by. Further, we suggest that this process resulted in the relatively
brittle crust of Mars weakening at the eastern
base of the now stretched Tharsis rise, resulting in a series of radial fissures opening up –
one of which was then radically enlarged to
become the Valles Marineris canyon system.
In the model, this original tension crack
was inevitably expanded by the erosive effects of a massive volume of directed tidal
waters – termed a “tidal bore”26 (Figure 11) -rushing back and forth (at several hundred
kilometers per hour!) the entire ~ 1600 kilometer plus length of the original fissure, twice
each Martian day, in direct response to the
original spin rate of Mars and the massive
gravitational tides caused by Planet V. Be-
fore Mars’ tidal lock with the larger planet
was achieved, this enormous surge would
have flowed, always westward, around the
circumference of Mars in the direction opposite Mars spin, until it piled up against the
immobile eastern side of the pre-capture
Tharsis bulge. At that point, when “high
tide” passed, the released waters would have
rushed (under Mars gravity) back down the
canyon system toward the east, scouring the
floor once more, until the next “high tide.”
This almost unimaginable force of rushing
water, through an expanding canyon system
of parallel fissures eventually opened up by
the fluvial erosion, would have recurred twice
each Martian “day,” possibly for several million years -- until Mars’ rotation was finally
stationary relative to Planet V.
Figure 12 – Valles Marineris, a heretofore inexplicable
trough extending one quarter of the circumference of
Mars, is the largest canyon in the Solar System. The
authors submit that this a fluvial trench generated by
tidal bore action during Mars’ “captured satellite”
phase.
It is our proposal that this “scrubbing action” eventually resulted in a radical deepening of the original narrow cleft to form the
present day ~7-km-deep, ~4000-km-long
canyon system known as “Valles Marineris”
– a system (Figure 12) now stretching one
quarter of the way around the planet Mars.
This assumes that Mars, like the other
planets of the solar system, prior to its capture
had a prograde spin. Thus, the tides induced
by Planet V forced the rising and falling waters to always assault the eastern side of
Tharsis – which is precisely where Valles
Marineris formed.
The newly-found bi-modal clustering of
“stains” (current water flows) exclusively in
the Tharsis and Arabia regions of the planet
by Palermo (2001), 180 degrees apart, is an
additional major indicator that this model is
correct. This accounts not only for tidal bimodal crustal deformation of the planet, as
predicted by the satellite model, but also implies that major quantities of unevenly distributed fluid (water) once also existed on the
surface. Presumably, this water primarily resided after “tidal lock” in two opposing “tidal
ocean bulges” – with possible dry land between -- because of the inevitable bi-lobed
tidal forces experienced by Mars as an ultimately synchronously rotating satellite of
Planet V.
Long Term Stasis – The evidence argues
that, once Mars lost its remaining spin momentum and established this stable synchronous orbital relationship, this was not broken
or adjusted significantly until the catastrophic
destruction of Planet V. The constant tidal
tugging on the two opposing hemispheres of
Mars from this synchronous orientation now
resulted in a continual uplift of the Tharsis
region, and to a lesser extent Arabia, antipodal to the Tharsis rise. The formerly racing
tides would also then have stabilized, and the
tidal erosion of Valles Marineris would have
totally subsided. At this point, the only additional fluvial erosion processes likely on the
planet would have been wind-induced wave
action and severe storms. Evidence of the
former should still present itself on some key
surface features not altered by the subsequent
Planet V destruction.
9
TIDAL BULGES ON MARS: R.C. Hoagland and M. H. Bara
to similarly vertical, wind/wave action features on Earth. Ironically, this idea was first
proposed in a somewhat modified form in
1973, by University of Pennsylvania geologist, the late Henry Faul. Titled romantically
“The Cliff of Nix Olympica” (the pre-Viking
name for Olympus Mons), the paper was
never accepted for publication “because of
the paucity of data.”28 The Viking and MGS
missions have now remedied that situation,
and we hope that Henry Faul’s remarkable
idea is finally given its appropriate hearing.
Figure 13 – Artists conception of Mars as it might have
appeared during its “Garden of Eden” period, after
capture by Planet V.
One potential candidate for such erosive
signatures is Olympus Mons itself. Olympus
Mons rises some 24 kilometers high and
measures 550 km in diameter, making it the
largest shield volcano in the solar system.
According to our model, a significant portion
of this volcano most likely stood above the
water-line of this ancient “Tharsis Ocean,”
and should still display signs of aeolian wave
action.
Figure 14 – Olympus Mons 3D perspective image
showing prominent vertical scarp at the base of the
lower flanks (NASA).
Remarkably, Olympus Mons is almost
completely encircled by a very steep, nearly
vertical escarpment. This scarp ranges from
between 2-10 km high,27 indicating that it was
carved out over time as the volcano was
pulled/pushed upward by the continuing tidal
force of Planet V aiding internal planetary
uplift. The vertical walls of the scarp suggest
that it was created by this proposed aeolian
wave action, as it bears a strong resemblance
10
The “White Cliffs of Dover” (Figure 15)
are a prime terrestrial example of such features. These lime-rock vertical cliffs are created by the action of the waters of the English
Channel. High winds in the Channel create a
constant bashing action on the shore rocks,
eventually beating the rocks to a vertical face.
Similar features are seen across the Channel
on the coast of France.
Figure 15 – The White Cliffs of Dover, a vertical, aeolian wave action feature on Earth.
Further evidence that the Olympus Mons
scarp feature is due to the wind-driven action
of an ocean can be found in the fact that it
envelops the entire mountain (Figure 16); if a
hypothetical ocean surrounded such a rising
tectonic feature, the wind/ocean patterns
would be expected to erode a mostly uniform
scarp such as the one we see.
Figure 16 – Overhead view of Olympus Mons from Mars
Global Surveyor. Prominent vertical scarp nearly encircles
the base (NASA/MSSS).
It is also likely the scarp was formed after
Mars assumed synchronous tidal lock around
Planet V, since it does not appear to be a result of directional tidal forces. If the scarp
was tidal, it is likely the cliffs on its circumference would be significantly more pronounced on the eastern side. Intriguingly,
Arthur Clarke several years ago created a
computer-generated image (Figure 17) depicting precisely such an “Olympus Ocean.” Although projected to a time when humans have
terraformed the planet Mars, his depiction –
especially the waters swirling around the
22,000 foot-high cliff around the mountain –
are eerily accurate to our own model of a
former “tidal Mars.”29
Figure 17 – Arthur C. Clarke’s projection of an “Olympus
Ocean” lapping at the 22,000 foot-high-cliffs surround
Olympus Mons
Stain Distribution - A major, long-term
consequence of this eventual Mars synchronous rotation around Planet V is the present
bi-modal distribution of subsurface water
stains. The tidal forces from Planet V would
have pushed water into sub-crustal fissures
and cavities at right angles to the exerted tidal
stress between Mars and Planet V (Figure
18). Over time, this would have driven additional Martian water in between the two “tidal
oceans” deep underground and toward one of
the two “water poles” at either end of the line
connecting Mars with Planet V.
This important theoretical detail is neatly
confirmed by the crucial observation that the
stain flow images are clustered only in the
Tharsis region and Arabia, exactly 180 degrees opposite. Any water apparently residing in between these two locations seems to
have been driven underground by the proposed tidal stresses on the planet. So deep, in
fact, that it is now unable to leave any surface
indications between these two former tidal
“poles.”
Another observation consistent with the
idea that the stains reflect current water reservoirs just below the surface, relates to the
“line of dichotomy” itself. Stains observed
on Tharsis seem only to occur north of this
line of demarcation. This implies that the
smoother hemisphere to the north is the older
geologically, as on Tharsis it possesses the
majority of the subsurface water/surface
stains now remaining from one of the two
tidally separated oceans. If the material making up the more heavily cratered southern
hemisphere is due to superimposed material
on the smoother, more eroded original crust
(Figure 19), then we would likely not now
find much water near the surface in those regions – even under the former Tharsis tidal
ocean.
11
TIDAL BULGES ON MARS: R.C. Hoagland and M. H. Bara
timescales. Volcanoes, ice, and glaciers can
all erode features,” he said. “But on this large
of a scale these are unlikely explanations.”
Figure 19 – MOLA generated 3D topography strip
showing the dramatic difference in crustal elevation
between the heavily cratered southern highlands and
the smoother northern lowlands. Possible water stain
images appear only above the crustal “line of dichotomy.”
The exception to this pattern would appear
to be the location of the opposite “tidal
ocean” – the Arabia Terra plateau, which is
heavily cratered as if from the Planet V event,
but possesses the second highest number of
current water stain images (see Figure 5). Recent scans from MOLA have shown that the
crust is significantly thinner in Arabia than it
is in most of the cratered southern hemisphere,30 accounting for the presence of relatively shallow water seepages beneath this
former ocean.
Additionally, researchers
Brian Hynek and Roger Phillips from Washington University in St. Louis, interpreting
this new altimeter evidence from Mars Observer, conclude that an enormous amount of
surface material was somehow excavated
from the planet's western Arabia Terra region.31
“We argue that this entire region has been
massively eroded," said Hynek. "The region
used to look like the rest of the [southern]
highlands, but a vertical kilometer of material
— enough to fill the Gulf of Mexico — has
been relocated downslope and spread out into
the northern plains." According to Hynek,
the most likely erosional force of this magnitude is flowing water. “Lots of things can
erode planets. Wind is very effective on long
12
Their puzzling observations are neatly explained by the sudden collapse of a former
“tidal ocean” previously maintained by Planet
V. When Planet V “exploded,” a massive
wall of water would have been released in a
few hours, rushing northward – taking a good
deal of Arabia Terra with it in the process –
exactly as Hynek and Phillips now conclude.
This, of course, also explains the current surface presence of stain images in this region –
they are the exhumed underground remains of
the subsurface waters from this former “Arabia Ocean.”
The Destruction of Planet V – We have
freely used the phrase in this paper “when
Planet V exploded” to describe the eventual
disappearance of Planet V and the release of
Mars back into a heliocentric (solar) orbit.
In Van Flandern’s original model, Planet
K and Planet V disintegrated via literal explosions, leaving only a residue of smaller fragments (the asteroids and comets); most of the
material from these (and previous) planetary
explosions, according to Van Flandern, was
completely ejected from the system by the
highly energetic nature of the events themselves or subsequent encounters with Jupiter.
In terms of the actual mechanism, some previously unknown “physics process” Van
Flandern has argued, is responsible for destroying single planets well after their formation. This insistence on a heretofore unmodeled, “mysterious energy release” mechanism
has played a major role in Van Flandern’s
less than enthusiastic reception by the planetary science community, in spite of the many
other recent confirmations of his model.
Since the evidence Van Flandern has marshaled for the after effects of this Event is far
more important here than the precise destruction mechanism he’s proposed, we believe a
shift of emphasis could retain the best fea-
tures in this instance, while avoiding the nontestable aspects of Van Flandern’s original
EPH model
It is our opinion that the eventual destruction of Planet V was occasioned by a simple
and direct (if not long overdue) collision with
the other proposed major planetary object in
Van Flandern’s celestial mechanics’ reconstruction: “Planet K.” Post Apollo models for
the origin of the Moon have embraced a similar concept. As the three leading pre-lunar
landing theories for lunar origin were tested
on the returning Apollo samples and found to
not fit the evidence, a radical new theory was
proposed. In 1975, Drs. William K. Hartmann and Donald R. Davis, writing in
ICARUS, suggested that the Moon was
formed as a side effect of a catastrophic
“glancing collision” of the Earth with another
major planetary object. Their idea was that
“a Mars-sized planetisimal” collided with the
early Earth, spalling off enough lightweight
crustal material to recondense to form the
Moon. In 1984, the first planetary conference
to specifically consider all aspects of this
revolutionary theory was convened, titled
“Origin of the Moon.”32 It is our proposal that
a similar event, simply delayed by a quirk of
celestial mechanics until very late in solar
system history, precipitated the destruction of
two planets in the current Asteroid Belt
~65MYA. This event, we suggest, thus liberated Mars from its temporary synchronous
orbit of Planet V to once again pursue a solitary – if significantly more elliptical than any
other inner planet -- solar orbit.
Remarkably, at a June, 2001 Earth Systems Processes Global Meeting in Edinburgh,
Scotland, astrobiologist Bruce Runnegar of
the University of California in Los Angeles
presented some striking independent evidence
that “something” major happened in the solar
system ~65 million years ago. Runnegar and
his colleagues had previously identified evidence of a 400,000-year cycle in ancient
ocean sediments, indicating changes in
Earth's climate corresponding to natural fluctuations in its orbit. To probe this cycle’s influence on Earth's climate over the past 100
million years, Runnegar’s team constructed
computer models based on known variations
in planetary orbits, their proximity to the Sun
and their interactive perturbations. In running
the models, they found that the known fluctuations of the solar system's dynamics remained constant going back to 65 million
years ago. Then, to their surprise, the frequency of perturbations to the orbits of the
inner planets suddenly changed.33
“If the orbits of Mercury, Earth and Mars
were being shaken up at this time, maybe asteroids were being shaken up too,” says Runnegard.
Or, maybe they were being formed – in a
gargantuan collision.
Aspects of this model echo another source
of surprising information about the solar system: cuneiform records from the earliest
“high” civilization, the Sumerian. Zecharia
Sitchin has written extensively about the
Sumerian’s uncanny “knowledge” of possible
collisional events from this earliest period of
solar system history.34 With the latest discoveries of radically different extra solar
planetary systems and current theoretical efforts to understand these systems in terms of
potentially interacting planetary orbits, the
relevance of Sitchin’s Sumerian translations
should take on new meaning.
In our Mars tidal model, the result of such
an unimaginable collision of two massive
planetary objects (remember, at least 4-5
Earth masses each) would be almost indistinguishable from a literal planetary explosion.
The effects of the collisional destruction of
Planet V and K on a nearby captured Mars,
orbiting less than 100,000 kilometers away,
would have been almost inconceivable. In
addition to the discovery of suddenly “shaky
planetary orbits” at ~65 MYA, such an Event
13
TIDAL BULGES ON MARS: R.C. Hoagland and M. H. Bara
should have left a number of predictable surface features on Mars itself – other unmistakable signatures of vast destruction.
Signatures of a Catastrophe -- Assuming
that only the top 1% of Planet V and K’s
lithospheres survived this disruptive Event -as accelerated chunks of various- sized crustal
debris moving outward from the site of the
collision -- large amounts of much smaller
materials from the exposed high temperature
mantles and cores of the respective planets
would have been ejected at high speed directly towards Mars in this Event. In looking
for resulting evidence of their impacts on
Mars, we should expect to see signatures of
rapid surface heating and then freezing; catastrophic water and associated mudflows; a major loss of atmosphere along with huge quantities of water; and finally – hemispherical
cratering on Mars from a vast amount of blast
debris from Planet V.
Mars shows all these signatures and more.
The strongest direct evidence of a debrisfilled “explosion Event” occurring close to
Mars, is the mysterious “line of dichotomy”
separating the northern and southern hemispheres at that angle of 35 degrees. Logically, if Mars was in synchronous orbital lock
with Planet V when the “explosion” came,
then evidence of a wave of impacts from the
destruction of the Planet should be plastered
all over Mars’ one “side,” at right angles to
the incoming debris. It is not. Instead, the
line of dichotomy is aligned (~60 degrees) to
the current Mars spin axis. And the authors
acknowledge that this presents some serious
problems for this entire model.
Without the narrow orientation constraints
now imposed by the Mars tidal model presented in this paper, some previous workers
have attempted to explain away this serious
geometric discrepancy by proposing a completely different pole position for the “preexplosion” Mars: an original rotational axis
14
almost 90 degrees to the current orientation.
Such a situation is termed “polar wander,”
and involves the long-term mechanical realignment of a planet’s spin axis (relative to
surface features) after a new mass distribution
is imposed – either internally (long-term convective flow) or externally (material accreted
from major impacts).35 This “wander” continues until a new rotational equilibrium is
established under the influence of the new
mass distribution, with a new resulting pole
position.
The nature of this “new mass redistribution,” which subsequently forced Mars to assume its current pole position, was assumed
in this case to be the sudden addition of significant crustal mass from the disintegrating
Planet V. If Mars’ “pre-explosion” spin axis
had been perpendicular to this incoming wave
of blast debris, so this theory proposed, the
momentum of the impacts coupled with the
unbalanced additional mass piled on the
planet’s “side,” would have initiated a “polar
wander scenario” – until Mars “toppled over”
to reach its current position of new rotational
equilibrium, relative to its current surface features.
Our tidal model, and the evidence supporting it presented here, emphatically forbids
such an “easy” dynamical solution to this major problem. The alignment of Mars prior to
Planet V’s destruction is now firmly determined: it must have been with the Tharsis/Arabia line aimed directly toward Planet
V (Figure 6). The spin poles would then have
been at right angles to this immovable alignment. So, the debris from the “explosion”
should have smashed into the planet at right
angles to the current Mars Equator – which
the line of dichotomy shows it clearly did not.
It has been argued that some major debris
– huge ejected “pieces” of Planet V’s disintegrating crust -- reached Mars first. That these
planet-busting impacts, which left the major
scars known as the “Argyre” and “Hellas”
basins, literally “rolled Mars over on its side”
before the blast wave of smaller (but more
numerous) debris arrived. This however, is
not at all likely. The smaller pieces would
have been accelerated fastest, and would have
arrived first … followed by the largest pieces
last. Simple Newton’s Laws:
planet. Shortly after that, the largest, continent-sized fragment -- which created the 2300
kilometer wide, 5 kilometer deep Hellas basin, the largest on the planet Mars – impacted
south of Arabia Terra (Figure 21).36
F = MA.
So, what is our solution?
We propose that as it was approaching
Planet V toward its ultimate collision, Planet
K passed close by Mars in its orbit around
Planet V (Figure 20). This close encounter
gravitationally interfered with the tidal lock
between Mars with Planet V. In fact, it began
a radical, gravitationally induced reorientation of the entire Mars’ spin axis relative to
Planet V. This was NOT internal “polar wander” relative to surface features, but an entire
change of the obliquity of Mars (spin axis tilt)
relative to Planet V.
After initiating this first major change in
Mars’ orientation in perhaps several hundred
million years, Planet K continued inward toward it’s catastrophic rendezvous with Planet
V. This impact initiated an almost inconceivable release of energy – the equivalent of Van
Flandern’s EPH explosion – and the shattered
fragments of the crust of both worlds, accelerated by the enormous blast, began their
spherical, outward journey through the solar
system. Some of them, a tiny fraction of the
total mass of both exploding planets, in the
space of a few hours eventually reached
Mars. But, by the time the first major wave
of fragments had arrived, Mars had tipped
over by some ~60 degrees, presenting almost
the entire southern hemisphere to the “explosion.” That’s why the “line of dichotomy” is
tilted by that ~60 degrees, relative to Mars
spin axis. In fact, as Mars continued to heel
over and larger, slower fragments continued
to arrive, this was when the material which
partially covered Arabia Terra reached the
Figure 21 – Hellas’ 2300 km impact basin
Approximately 12 hours since the collision
of Planet’s K and V had now elapsed.
The effects on Mars of such an unimaginable collision/explosion “right next door”
would not be limited to massive, visible impacts on the surface. The effects of countless
megatons of smaller, accelerated mantle and
core material from Planet’s K and V, entering
the Martian atmosphere at hypersonic speeds,
would literally superheat that atmosphere and
then blow a major fraction of it into space.
Any surface waters would literally boil from
the shockwaves and radiant heating of incoming high-velocity debris, and a major fraction
of that water would then join the atmosphere
in its escape. With the immediate loss of a
significant percentage of the atmosphere,
temperatures on the surface would plummet,
resulting in any remaining liquid water
quickly freezing. Shallow underground reservoirs would remain liquid for a longer interval, before also becoming ice.
It is a “snapshot” of these bi-modal, formerly flash frozen water concentrations at the
moment of catastrophe – the locations of the
two former Martian tidal oceans -- that the
15
TIDAL BULGES ON MARS: R.C. Hoagland and M. H. Bara
current “stain images” now seem to be confirming.
Chemical Signatures of a Collision
Event - Several current geochemical puzzles
regarding Mars are solved with the introduction of this “Martian satellite model.” When
Viking carried out the first insitu surface
composition measurements in 1976, one of
the puzzling results was an unusually high
percentage of sulfur in the soil. Compared to
an average surface abundance on Earth of
0.07%, Viking reported a Mars sulfur abundance of over 3% -- 43 times more. Similarly, iron on the surface of the Earth is 3.8%,
while on the surface of Mars it measures over
15%.37
Models for planetary formation generally
agree that iron and a host of other “heavy
elements” sink to the centers of newly forming worlds to form high-temperature cores.38
Another generally agreed upon core constituent, present to approximately 10%, is sulfur –
as FeS. In the awesome collision of two such
massive planetary bodies, it is inevitable that
copious amounts of these high-temperature
materials would be ejected directly into
space. It is our proposal in this paper that not
only did this occur, but that Mars swept up
precisely these abundant core materials;
which is why they now exhibit such unusual
and misleading abundances in the surface
materials mantling the planet.
Recent Surveyor composition data from
the Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES)
has revealed that this anomalous sulfur is in
the form of sulfates, as opposed to iron sulfide – the form of the original FeS we are
proposing. It is obvious, in our model, that
the original FeS falling out of space became
oxidized, turning into sulfates. A similar fate
seems to have befallen the anomalous iron
that also rained on Mars from this catastrophe.
16
For Mars presents us with a greater paradox than sulfur. We must ask a far more basic question: why is it so red? Mars redness,
we now know from TES data,39 results from
the extensive drifts of iron oxide strewn
across the surface. A fundamental question
then becomes: if the original iron source was
metallic iron, from the exploding/colliding
planets’ cores, where did the free oxygen
come from to eventually oxidize that iron
down on Mars? Even primordial free oxygen,
capable of oxidizing iron in geological strata
termed “banded-iron formations” and “red
beds” on Earth, it is agreed, derived from one
main source: growing biological activity.40
In the iron-rich, rusted sands of Mars, are
we seeing striking evidence of similar biological activity? Did the “rain of iron” falling
from the sky from the destruction of Planet V
encounter an atmosphere containing copious
free oxygen – bringing to a tragic end a biological “Garden of Eden” era for the captured
Mars?
Mars Global Surveyor surface composition
data indicates another major surface anomaly
on Mars that supports this tidal model. Using
the information from TES, Robert N. Clarke
and Todd M. Hoefen, of the U.S. Geological
Survey, have reported the identification of
widespread abundances of olivine [(Mg, Fe)2
SiO4] on the Martian surface (Figure 22).41
As olivine (an iron-magnesium silicate)
quickly weathers into other minerals in the
presence of liquid water, its surprising abundance according to all conventional Mars
models would indicate that the planet has
been “cold and dry” for the last several billion
years. It’s widespread presence, according to
Clark, seems to effectively preclude former
models of a “warmer, wetter Mars.”
Our interpretation is quite different: that
the source of Mars’ olivine (like its anomalous iron and sulfur) is totally external -- also
coming from the destruction of Planet V,
rather than from conventional internal ancient
volcanism.
Because olivine is thought to be a major
component of the mantles of the inner
“rocky” planets, its dispersion into space in a
major planetary collision would be inevitable.
Like the anomalous presence of iron and sulfur in the Martian surface soils (in our model,
from the collisionally-exposed planetary
cores), we now propose that the unexpected
global abundance of olivine is also precisely
in accord with the hypothesis presented here:
that a collision/explosion of two major Earthtype planets released enormous quantities of
mantle material directly into space. And that
Mars inevitably swept up a significant
amount of this rapidly condensed material.
Because Mars’ climate radically changed
immediately after this Event, and its remaining water froze, the presence of large quantities of unweathered olivine on Mars can only
be another striking signature of. Mars’ former
existence as a satellite of Planet V -- which
(the olivine confirms) was then catastrophically destroyed.
If our model is correct, there should be
two additional observations strongly supporting this assertion. First, the olivine that TES
detected should be primarily concentrated in
the areas defined as being from the blast wave
pattern of Planet V’s destruction. Second, the
current water “stains” should cluster in areas
with low current olivine detection.
Point number one: examination of the
global olivine distribution map from TES
(Figure 22), shows that over 90% of this important mineral is concentrated in areas south
of the “line of dichotomy” on Mars – where
impact debris from Planet V is also concentrated. Again, olivine in this amount would
normally be found in unweathered volcanic
fields newly erupted from the planetary mantle. Since the standard model for explaining
Mars’ heavily cratered southern hemisphere
assumes a very ancient surface, this presents a
fundamental problem. On a planet otherwise
exhibiting abundant evidence of extensive
water flows and its attendant weathering of
olivine, how can the current surface distribution of this mineral support an ancient southern hemisphere? The answer is: it can’t.
Thus, we take this wide-spread olivine as
strong confirmation that a) the source of this
material is new, and b) is external to Mars’
underlying landscape; more precisely, that it’s
simply accreted mantle material from the disintegration of Planet’s K& V.
Point number two: by overlaying Palermo’s “stain global distribution” with the
USGS TES mineral map from Clark and Hoefen, we can easily assess the second correlation. As one can see (Figure 23), the “water
stain” image clusters occupy – almost exclusively – areas with little or no olivine. This is
also entirely consistent with the model we’ve
proposed, that these stains are evidence of
current, extensive, ground-based liquid water.
Further corroborating evidence for this
dramatic sequence of events comes from additional TES data.
As reported in
SCIENCE,42 two distinct surface spectral signatures have now been identified on Mars
from low-albedo regions of the planet. Comparisons with spectra of terrestrial rock samples indicate that the two compositions are a
basaltic mix dominated by plagioclase feldspar and clinopyroxene, and an andesitic
(silicic) composition dominated by plagioclase feldspar and volcanic glass. The distribution of these two distinct mineral compositions is, again, split roughly along the planetary dichotomy line. The basaltic composition is confined to the heavily cratered terrain
in the south, and the more silicic composition
is concentrated in the northern plains.
This separation of Mars into two distinct
mineralogical regimes, composed now of two
very different surface materials – one considered “primitive” (because the chemistry is
simple), and the other “complex” (because its
17
TIDAL BULGES ON MARS: R.C. Hoagland and M. H. Bara
formed by extensive weathering of lighter,
differentiated crust materials) – is in fact another remarkable confirmation of the tidal
model. In the conventional geological history
of Mars, the discovery of a basaltic (“primitive”) volcanic rock composition of the (below the “line of dichotomy”) southern hemisphere, indicates as we have noted that this
part of Mars is considerably older than the
rest of the planet. The theory is that it in fact
dates back to the earliest history of Mars,
when the first massive basaltic volcanism was
forming surface crust. In this view, the (presumed) remnants of the last heavy meteor
bombardment are also represented on this
“primitive” southern hemisphere, by the extensive cratering below the “line of dichotomy.” This overwhelmingly crater-covered
landscape, in this theory, simply confirms the
idea that this is truly ancient “3+GYA” original Martian crust.
The tidal model, and its associated “Planet
V destruction,” takes the same data and presents a radically different reconstruction.
In our view, this “bi-modal” surface composition is actually another major confirmation of the tidal model. The massive cratering
and basaltic (“primitive”) composition of the
southern hemisphere stems directly from the
same external source that left the mysterious
olivine, iron and sulfur strewn across the
planet: the primitive, infalling mass of basaltic mantle and core materials which have
covered Mars to a depth of almost 30 kilometers from the “exploding” Planets K & V.
The more weathered northern plains, according to TES data, also confirm – contrary to all
the conventional Mars models -- that it is in
fact the older hemisphere of Mars, and was
long exposed to the erosive and weathering
effects of liquid water … if not perhaps free
oxygen.
The last major signature of Mars’ former
existence as a tidally locked satellite of Planet
V, and the sudden catastrophic change in that
18
condition, comes from a close examination of
the Tharsis “bulge” itself. Roger J. Phillips of
Washington University in St. Louis and several colleagues recently published an extensive new study of this massive Martian feature. Phillips reports that the Tharsis rise is
the result of 300 hundred million cubic
kilometers of lava -- enough to cover Mars 2
kilometers deep, if spread evenly across the
planet -- that somehow became concentrated
in one place on Mars. This calculation is far
greater than previous estimates from past
studies.43
Around much of the Tharsis rise is a puzzling, low-lying area called the Tharsis trough
(Figure 24). Phillips says, “Imagine that
Mars is a beach ball and that the Tharsis mass
load is your fist. As your fist pushes into the
beach ball, there is a bulge created on the opposite side of the ball (the Arabia bulge), and
a depression or trough surrounds your fist
(the Tharsis trough).”
The authors – in light of the tidal model
presented in this paper -- have a very different
interpretation of these associated features.
As noted earlier, it is endemic to the tidal
model that both the Tharsis bulge and it’s
180-degree smaller counterpart, Arabia, are
classic signatures of tidally distended fluids.
The enormous bulk of Tharsis cited by Phillips’ in this recent study merely demonstrates
how effective the tidal forces from Planet V
truly were, in allowing such an enormous
mass of mantle material to rise above the
Mars mean datum against Mars gravity –
some 10 km above the surrounding terrain.
This condition is termed “hydrostatic equilibrium.”
It is intrinsic to this model that when
Planet V’s partially supporting tidal forces
were suddenly removed, this enormous Tharsis mass was suddenly dependent for its continued elevation solely on existing internal
forces within Mars. The result was simple:
over millions of years, Tharsis began to
slowly sink back toward the center of Mars,
seeking to establish a new state of hydrostatic
equilibrium. The “Tharsis trough” around
this massive concentration of material is
merely the result of an inevitable depression
in the Martian crust around this ponderous
mass (Figure 24), as that crust has broken and
sunk under the enormous (now unsupported)
weight of Tharsis, attempting to come to a
new equilibrium condition.
As for the Arabia bulge on the planet’s
other side, contrary to Phillip’s assertions, its
uplift had nothing to do with this partial relaxation of Tharsis back into the mantle. To
the contrary, as previously noted Arabia’s
original uplift was a separate tidal signature
of Mars previous close association with
Planet V. After its destruction, Arabia experienced it’s own partial readjustment toward Mars center, also in direct response to
the removal of the previously partially supporting tidal forces from Planet V.
One side effect of this inevitable “sinking
process,” of bringing Tharsis and (to a lesser
extent) Arabia into a new condition of hydrostatic equilibrium with Mars, was the late
creation of a whole new volcanic “rise” at 90
degrees to both these former uplifts. In looking at the map (see Figures 8 and 9), it is obvious that the Elysium uplift is the direct result of the release of compressional forces in
Mars’ mantle, the slow sinking of the two
former tidal masses on both “sides” of Mars
seeking a new equilibrium. Over time, the
enormous potential energy released within the
mantle from the partial downward readjustment of Tharsis and Arabia caused a “pulse”
of major heating inside Mars where the internal forces balanced. The result, 90 degrees in
between, was the creation of a much later,
much smaller volcanic uplift -- Elysium
Mons.
Magnetic Confirmation of Catastrophe?
-- For many years the question has remained:
does Mars (like all the other planets measured) possess an intrinsic magnetic field?
This question is important to geologists and
biologists alike. For, if Mars has (or had) a
sizable magnetic field, then the evolution of
the planet would have been far more benign
for the development of life. Mars Surveyor,
beginning in 1997, finally gave an answer to
this question: no. The core mechanism which
would support an active Martian magnetic
field generation process, like in the Earth or
Jupiter, has died -- leaving only a remnant
surface field from an ancient dynamo to be
detected.
But what MGS did detect of this ancient
Martian field is quite bizarre: a remarkable
series of “magnetic bands,” stretching across
a huge swath of the southern hemisphere, a
quarter of the way around the planet (see Figure 25). These irregular east/west stripes
measure about 100 kilometers wide and are
up to 2000 kilometers in length. The stripes
represent areas of Mars’ ancient “frozen
field,” recorded in magnetized “strips” of
Martian crust, alternating in polarity –
North/South – until they reach the “line of
dichotomy,” where they then mysteriously
dissipate.44 Two important additional facts:
the bands do not extend into the northern
plains; and, they also mysteriously stop at the
locations of the huge Argyre and Hellas impact basins.
When planetologists were initially confronted with this data, they likened the magnetic striping to an analog of magnetic banding seen in sea floor spreading here on Earth,
a strong signature of plate tectonics. This
view was reinforced by the location of the
Mars’ magnetic banding: exclusively in the
heavily cratered southern hemisphere (Figure
25). These workers immediately equated the
banding (in their model) with the process being “very ancient’ -- dating back to the original formation of Mars’ basaltic crust. The
main problem with this model: the Mars’
banding is far larger than the suggested paral19
TIDAL BULGES ON MARS: R.C. Hoagland and M. H. Bara
lels on Earth, and there seems to be no “point
of symmetry” from which the upwelling lava
spread out in both directions, unlike undersea
ridges here on Earth which are creating new
seafloor in this process.45
We suggest a completely different origin.
When the initial wave of blast debris from
K and V reached Mars, it proceeded to leave
a vast sea of molten rock across the southern
hemisphere from the millions of essentially
simultaneous impacts. The seismic effects in
Mars from such an inconceivable event can
only be expressed in terms of the well-known
Richter scale. Calculations have been done
expressing the conversion of the expected
impact energy of a colliding object into seismic shaking.46
These calculations demonstrate that even
the fall of a one kilometer object on Earth can
locally create the equivalent of a 9.5 Richter
scale earthquake, the largest ever measured.
Imagine a rain of objects a million times
greater -- ranging from a few hundred meters
to several kilometers across – all hitting Mars
simultaneously. Even allowing for the lesser
gravitational acceleration of Mars, and the
lower initial velocity of debris from the nearby K & V collision when compared to Earth
events, this wave of impacting debris would
amount to an input of seismic energy roughly
equivalent to a Richter Scale 15 Event –
across the entire planet!
The closest recorded approximation of the
physics of such an event may be found during
the Apollo lunar missions. In 1969, after the
Apollo 12 astronauts emplaced a seismic experiment on the lunar surface, the ascent stage
from their discarded lunar model was deliberately impacted back on the Moon to calibrate
the experiment. According to the official
NASA mission documents and press reports,
the Moon “rang like a like a bell for over an
hour after impact …”47 One explanation was
that the dry, upper layers of the Moon effi20
ciently transmitted the impact energy (equivalent to 1600 lbs of TNT) of the impacting
LM, as a set of standing waves around the
Moon, first increasing and then decreasing in
intensity as the energy was reflected between
two upper layers of the lunar crust. We propose a similar phenomenon – but at an incalculably greater intensity – occurred on Mars
as a direct result of the barrage of impacts
that blanketed the southern hemisphere from
the destruction of Planet V.
We suggest that the input of this much
seismic energy, simultaneously across the entire southern hemisphere of Mars, created a
set of unprecedented standing P and S waves
within the crust, reverberating back and forth
between the Martian poles. In this hemisphere, literally melted from the multiple,
overlapping impacts, these resonant harmonics cooled the banded sections first (in the
rarefactions between the standing waves) -resulting in the existing background global
magnetic field of Mars being “frozen in” -- as
a series of alternating bands of polarity within
the heavily iron-enriched rocks (Figure 25).
(This well-known threshold, whereby magnetic materials cooled below a certain temperature will retain a background magnetic
field, is termed the “Curie point.”48) As a further confirmation of our model, we point to
the “anomaly” of Argyre and Hellas. The
MGS magnetic survey discovered that the
“banding” stops at the site of these two major
impact basins. We propose a simple and elegant explanation for this important observation: in keeping with basic Newtonian physics, which constrains these largest fragments
of Planets K&V to arrive last, it is consistent
with this model that when these massive,
slowly-moving impactors arrived and excavated their respective basins, their colossal
collisional energy destroyed the delicate
“standing wave” conditions for preserving the
magnetic banding from the previous debris.
They also raised the local material above their
Curie point again, literally melting any cooling bands which had previously formed in
these locations. In this way, the absence of
magnetic signatures around these two major
impact sites confirms that they had to have
arrived last.
We therefore propose that the puzzling
magnetic banding of alternate polarity on
Mars arose, not from any type of ancient
“Martian plate tectonics,” but as a direct result of the enormous seismic energy transferred to the southern hemisphere by the
countless massive impacts from the “recent”
(~65 MYA) destruction of Planet V. We further submit that the complete absence of any
similar phenomenon elsewhere on Mars –
north of the impact “line of dichotomy” -- is
compelling evidence for this hypothesis. And
finally, this key indication of Mars’ former
active magnetic field, inferred from the
strength of the “frozen field” magnetic bands
-- approximately 1/400th Earth’s current surface field – is more than sufficient to have
encouraged a viable Martian biological environment … in recent times.
Another Moon? -- In Van Flandern’s
original celestial mechanics model for the
EPH, his analysis of the orbits of long-period
comets strongly implied another, far more
recent “explosion event” than the one we’ve
been discussing here.49 Van Flandern proposed a second satellite of Planet V as the
cause of these new comets, which was destroyed in a similar manner to Planet V, but
after several million years. Calculations
showed that after Planet V was shattered and
its determining gravitational field disappeared, Mars and this second satellite could
have gone into an orbit around each other.
According to Van Flandern, such a second
orbital capture had “about a fifty/fifty
chance,” of taking place.50
That such a “late” destructive event took
place is well-supported by the comet orbit
data Van Flandern’s analyzed. Whether this
event took place with this second moon orbiting as a satellite of Mars is much more prob-
lematic. It is our proposal in this paper that
the logical mechanism of destruction of such
a second hypothetical satellite would have
been another world-shattering collision. Because of later interactions with Jupiter, the
primary debris of the original collision would
have been diverted into orbits which eventually crossed the orbits of all the other planets
in the solar system. This (according to Van
Flandern) is why there are so many recent
impact craters on solar system objects; they
stem from the debris of this 65 MYA Event,
“mopped up” by subsequent collisions
throughout the solar system.
As an extension of this process, the most
massive remaining fragment(s) of Planet V
would have remained near the new orbits of
Mars and any second “wandering moon, ” but
in a somewhat eccentric orbit. In our reconstruction, consistent with the comet data indicating a second “fragmentation event,” the
inevitable collision of such a Planet K/V
fragment with this second moon likely took
place 62 million years after the destruction of
Planets K & V. But, unlike Van Flandern’s
reconstruction, we do not believe that such an
event necessarily took place in the immediate
vicinity of Mars. Van Flandern believes that
Mars and the “second moon” had to have
been orbiting each other, primarily because
the massive evidence of “late” water flows on
Mars and a presumed high water content for
the composition of this “second moon.” In
our model, because of the tidal release of vast
reservoirs of Martian water after Planet V
was gone (water not known to Van Flandern
when he first proposed his model), we believe
the fluvial signatures he ascribes to the destruction of this second, “Europa-type” moon
were all created 62 million years earlier, in
the immediate aftermath of the Planet V destruction at 65 MYA.
Effects Beyond Mars – The catastrophic
destruction of a moon or major planet – either
through collision or explosion – could not
take place without leaving major signatures
21
TIDAL BULGES ON MARS: R.C. Hoagland and M. H. Bara
far beyond its immediate vicinity. One potential signature -- the peculiar orbits of the longperiod comets – was the data that initially
awakened Van Flandern’s interest in this subject. But there are other indicators that now
amply support the model of a former “tidal
Mars,” and the catastrophic destruction of its
foster parent.
These include the striking hemispherical
dichotomies seen on several other solar system objects, in particularly Iapetus, one of
Saturn’s icy moons (Figure 26). Iapetus orbits Saturn in 79.33 days. As the initial blast
wave of high temperature, carbon-rich debris
from the destruction of Planets K&V spread
out across the solar system, it eventually
swept past Iapetus. Because of the satellite’s
slow, almost 80-day tidally locked rotation/revolution around Saturn, the debris –
passing Iapetus in only a few hours -- impacted essentially on the facing side of Iapetus – resulting in one of the most asymmetrical objects in the solar system.51
other species, to the world-wide layers of iridium and soot that are now evidence of an extraterrestrial impact of unimaginable global
scope, the destruction of Planet V obviously
also left its tragic mark as far away as Earth.52
It is now apparent that the object which struck
this planet ~65 MYA and triggered a wave of
catastrophic mass extinctions, most likely occurred as a direct result of the impact of a
large (~10 km) fragment from Planets K&V.
But what of later impacts?
Several years after the Viking missions returned the first Martian atmospheric and surface composition data, workers began using
this list of elements and isotopes to compare
with meteorites found on Earth.53 In 1985,
the first identification of a rare form of meteorite (one of only 13 currently known, called
“SNCs”) as specifically coming from the
planet Mars was published.54 This identification was based on a claim of a “perfect
match” between trapped gasses in the SNCs
with the Martian atmospheric composition
measured by the Viking Landers. But this
theory is not without its critics, among them
Tom Van Flandern.
“This highly misleading paper ["Meteorites: Evidence of Martian origins"] is the
original source of the assertion [that there are
meteorites on Earth from Mars], quoted often
in the media of late … Non-meteoriteexperts may be forgiven for not considering
what was not shown.
Figure 25 – Saturn’s moon Iapetus, pitch black on one
side as if from a blast wave.
The extraordinary events occurring at the
end of the Cretaceous Period (~65MYA) on
Earth is also on this list. From the sudden
extinction of the dinosaurs and 50% of all
22
•
The log-log plot [of the gasses compared to Viking’s findings] hid the
size of the discrepancies for individual
gases.
•
Gases were selectively plotted only
for cases of relative agreement.
•
No comparison plots to show how
well the same data fit gas compositions for other source bodies, or solar
system averages in general, was presented.
“... carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most
abundant gas on Mars by far. Yet its relative
abundance in the meteorites is but a tiny fraction of its abundance on Mars … The case
for a Martian origin [of SNC meteorites] is
really a case based on a lack of a suitable alternative [emphasis added].”55
In other words, without the model of colliding/exploding Planets K& V, the only possible origin for such “anomalous meteorites” - in the minds of most researchers -- is the
planet Mars. With the substantive evidence
for other, destroyed planetary bodies in this
region of the solar system – now implicit in
the Mars tidal model we’ve presented – serious alternatives for the origin of currently
identified “Martian meteorites” present themselves.
The recent discovery of trapped salt water, as small inclusions in some meteorites56
is an obvious (if astonishing to mainstream
planetologists) confirmation of a) the Mars
tidal model presented here, and b) the catastrophic destruction of its former “parent”
planet. If current meteorites derive from the
“recent” collision/explosion of multiple
Earth-massed planets in the solar system
and/or escaped moons, the water from such
bodies could easily be ocean water [as on
Earth, and as also projected by one of the authors (Hoagland) to currently exist on Jupiter’s moon Europa].57 This water, trapped
within some rare meteorite structures, would
be expected to contain salt (sodium chloride)
from run-off minerals dissolved from potential continental portions of the former
planet(s). “The existence of a water-soluble
salt in this meteorite is astonishing,” wrote
R.N. Clayton of the University of Chicago.58
For all conventional (primordial) hightemperature models of asteroid formation,
this discovery truly is impossible. Only the
trapping of Mars as a former satellite, and its
release with the disintegration of Planets
K&V, contains this specific discovery as an
implicit aspect of the model.
In a further note, Carleton Moore of Arizona State University reported in the July
2000 issue of “Meteoritics & Planetary Science” the discovery of anomalously high
chlorine levels (one half of the “sodium chloride” of ordinary salt) in the “Martian” meteorites (the SNCs) in ASU’s collection, as opposed to normal levels in the “asteroidal”
ones. The anomalous presence of waterderived salts has also been reported in
NASA’s most controversial “Martian meteorite” – ALH84001 – center of the reported discovery of fossil bacteria in 1996. Moore and
his team, in re-analyzing their meteorites,
concluded the excess chlorine could easily
have resulted from saltwater leaking in.
Moore sees these elements as potential tracers
of “an early Martian ocean,” infused with salt
compounds much like Earth’s own.59 This
elevated presence of salts and salt compounds
in the SNCs, as compared with other meteorites, in our model simply comes from another
ocean – one on Planets K or V. Thus, the elevated presence of water-soluble salts in SNCs
is also remarkably consistent with the model
we’ve presented.
In the same vein, when the bright comet
Hale-Bopp made its brief but spectacular visit
to the inner solar system in 1997, an unusual
new cometary signature was observed (although a previous bright comet, in 1957, had
also exhibited this feature.60 In addition to
the usual twin tails exhibited by comets – an
ion tail of molecular fragments dissociated by
the sun, and a dust tail of small particles emanating from the coma --- Hale-Bopp displayed a remarkably third tail – comprised
entirely of neutral sodium.61 The discoverers
were at a loss to explain this unique feature,
simply saying in their announcement “ …
there is no obvious explanation at this moment of how the observed sodium tail is
formed.” One of the authors (Hoagland) im23
TIDAL BULGES ON MARS: R.C. Hoagland and M. H. Bara
mediately realized that this signature, while
extremely puzzling to most astronomers and
planetologists, was totally consistent with the
EPH hypothesis, and could easily be explained by an unseen parent molecule within
the new tail: sodium chloride. In other words,
if Hale-Bopp was another fragment of the disrupted planet/moon that Van Flandern initially pointed out over twenty years ago, then
the discovery of sodium strongly implied that
this comet parent body also had an ocean –
and Hale-Bopp was simply another fragment
of that planet. He promptly informed Van
Flandern of his hypothesis.62
lier Mars’ features from which reliable reconstruction of its history prior to capture would
be possible.
The nature of the collisional/explosive “Planets K&V Event” also
effectively destroyed the ability to use relative cratering as any reliable estimate of age,
on Mars (and many other satellites and planets). As previously noted, debris from this
incalculable planetary catastrophe would not
only have bombarded Mars, but also would
have spread throughout the solar system, irrevocably changing cratering statistics and
any crater-based age determinations on a host
of other worlds.
A New Mars Timeline – One of the serendipitous features of this model is that it
now allows an independent assessment of the
relative ages of various features and phenomenon on Mars. All previous efforts to
date surface features have had to rely on relative ages, based on crater counts, normalized
to cratering statistics and radiometric ages
from the Moon.63 The tidal model provides
the first truly independent means of calibrating, from a radically different perspective, the
geological history of Mars, if not other bodies
in the solar system (see below).
Despite this major obstacle, there do seem
to be some remaining clues to dating ancient
Martian surface features. Recent publication
of MGS evidence of deep and widespread
sedimentary layering indicates a long period
of “warm, wet” climate.64 The presence in
some areas of over 1000 evenly spaced rock
layers (presumably from standing water
deposition) also implies that these sedimentary deposits were controlled by cyclic climatological events. And this, in one model, then
implies some kind of ancient, regular, polar
obliquity shifts and resulting periodic increases in atmospheric density, from changing solar insolation of the Martian poles.65
Thus, a new Mars chronology can now be
tentatively proposed. It is divided into three
main periods: the time from solar system
formation to Mars’ capture by Planet V; the
period of Mars’ existence as a tidally-locked
satellite of Planet V; and the interval postPlanet V’s destruction to the Present.
Period I -- The earliest era of Mars’ history – Period I in our proposed new timescale
-- remains the most uncertain and ambiguous.
In terms of the model presented in this paper,
one key reason is the presence of widespread
cratering due to the nearby explosion/collision of Planets K and V. This pattern of hemispherically devastating impacts,
coupled with the massive fluvial changes to
the northern plains that immediately followed, have all but eliminated records of ear24
Since this kind of cyclic obliquity shifting
would be prohibited after Mars’ capture as a
tidally locked satellite, it is proposed here that
these conditions only could have occurred
when Mars was freely orbiting the sun as an
isolated world. This implies that Mars enjoyed a considerable period of “warm, wet”
climate early in solar system history, before
its capture by Planet V, and before the internal radioactive energy sources of Mars died.
In this new chronology, Mars long primordial
period of isolated, heliocentric existence -Period I – ended with the multi-body capture
of Mars by Planet V.
Period II -- In this chronology, Period II
dates from the “capture event” itself, to the
destruction of Planet V. Surface evidence of
this major phase of Mars’ geological evolution includes the beginnings of radial crustal
fracturing around the Tharsis uplift; the beginnings of and rapid tidal enlargement of
Valles Marineris from one of these equatorial
rifts; the despinning of the planet until a tidal
lock of ~24 hours was achieved; the beginnings of the lesser 180-degree Arabia Terra
uplift, opposite Tharsis, as a direct consequence of the establishment of tidal lock; and
the eruption of vast quantities of N02, CO2
and H2O into the Martian atmosphere as a
direct result of the accelerated uplift of the
tidally-distended Tharsis. A significant increase in water availability, warming temperatures occasioned by an increased greenhouse process, and bi-modal pooling of this
water into two stable “east/west” oceans,
would have marked what might be termed
this “Garden of Eden “ phase of Martian
evolution.
If Planet V possessed one or more additional moons, as Van Flandern has proposed,
their location in the same system as the tidally
captured Mars, would have occasioned an
internal Martian heating similar (though less
intense) to that currently seen in the
Io/Europa situation.66 Thus, for as long as
Mars was a satellite of Planet V, internal energy from a tidally disturbed orbital condition, in addition to its own dying reserves of
radioactive elements, would have kept its
core alive, its magnetic field at full strength,
and its atmosphere constantly replenished.
This “idyllic” planetary situation – Period II - would have ended abruptly some 65 MYA,
in the collision of Planets K &V.
Period III – The last phase of Martian history would have begun with the destruction of
Planet V and the release of Mars back into a
solar orbit. With the sudden relaxation of its
previous tidal lock from Planet V, all the waters collected in Mars’ two bi-modal oceans
would have rushed toward the lowest areas
again – mainly the northern plains. This un-
precedented tsunami situation not only would
have scoured vast portions of the planet’s
crust from Tharsis and Arabia and relocated
Figure 27 – Outflow water channels beneath and north of
Valles Marineris (MOLA)
these previous sedimentary layers as vast
mudflows across the north, the rush of waters
would have carved enormous new “outflow
channels” in that crust away from Tharsis and
Arabia – exactly as we see. As they plunged
down the Valles Marineris system and headed
north, some of these now catastrophically released waters would have buried older “outflow channels,” from the earlier phases of
Valles Marineris’ creation (Figure 27), under
kilometers of additional sediments -- also
confirmed by the new MOLA observations.67
Recent MGS observations have uncovered
additional striking evidence supporting this
“catastrophic collapse” of the former “Tharsis
ocean,” this time northwest of Arsia Mons.
Writing in the June 2001 issue of the Journal
of Geophysical Research,68 University of Arizona researcher James Dohm has billed his
team’s new findings as “the largest flood
channels in the solar system,” caused by
“catastrophic floods of enormous magnitude”
– some 50,000 times the flow rate of the
Amazon. Located southwest of Olympus
Mons (Figure 28), the newly-discovered
channels are 10 times the size of Kasei
Valles, the largest previously known outflow
channel system on Mars. Measuring as wide
as 200 kilometers, in our view only the catastrophic collapse of the former “Tharsis tidal
25
TIDAL BULGES ON MARS: R.C. Hoagland and M. H. Bara
ocean” and the scouring effect of trillions of
tons of newly-released water rushing north
can now account for their existence – exactly
as the tidal model would predict.
Figure 28 – New flood channels on Tharsis (NVS) -- 10
times larger than any previously discovered, draining northwest.
Strikingly consistent with this model is the
bi-modal distribution of all the Martian “outflow channels.” If the oceans we’ve projected were bi-modally distributed, as we now
state categorically, then the outflow channels
emptying those oceans when the tidal lock
collapsed would also be expected to have a
bi-modal distribution in the geologic record.
Again, this is exactly what we see. Examination of the channel distribution maps from
MGS (Figure 29) reveals that catastrophic
outflow channels draining the two potential
tidal oceans are unquestionably also bimodally distributed -- around the periphery of
both the Tharsis and Arabia regions, exactly
as the tidal model would predict.
Apart from the immediate (and catastrophic) relocation of Mars’ oceans, the slow
geological relaxation of Tharsis (and to a
lesser extent Arabia) back into the mantle after their partial tidal support was suddenly
removed, would have begun in Period III as
well. This would have created over the following millennia an inevitable downward
26
warpage of the crust around this massive,
now unsupported uplift, called the “Tharsis
trough” (Figure 24). This inevitable settling
would have also triggered additional volcanic
activity both in those regions, and at 90 degrees. The latter we have now identified with
the late creation of Elysium Mons.
The catastrophic arrival on Mars, a few
hours after the Planets K&V collision, of the
first debris wave, is marked by the peculiar
“line of dichotomy” of “shoulder-toshoulder” impact cratering that has so puzzled
planetary geologists since 1971. These first
impacts would have begun a long period of
Mars continually “mopping up” material left
from the catastrophe near its resultant solar
orbit; estimates for this interval depend on
how rapidly the huge quantity of dust and larger crustal fragments would have either collided with Jupiter (or other solar system planets), or would have been completely ejected
from the solar system by encounters with
these bodies. Those estimates range from “a
few million” to perhaps 100 million years.69
Because of this vast orbital reservoir of
condensed core and mantle materials from the
Planets K&V collision, Mars would have
continuously “swept up” new supplies of olivine and iron-rich sulfur compounds from
space for millions of years. This process
would have continually replaced previously
fallen materials weathered from surface exposure to liquid water stemming from irregular
periods of Martian volcanism, triggered by
the continuing slow collapse of Tharsis and
Arabia. In this way, Mars surface history after the collision ~ 65 MYA – the beginning of
Period III -- would have been a complex tale
of episodic “warm, wet” periods in which
these “primitive” materials could be destroyed, followed by cold and arid intervals in
which they could once again accumulate.
This episodic environment likely has extended to the Present, triggered by this residual internal volcanism from the continued settling of Tharsis, as well as major obliquity
shifts and their periodic warming and release
of current polar reservoirs of C02 and H2O.
In our model, one direct consequence of
this accreted, sulfur-rich surface environment
is the mysterious “stains” themselves.
Appearing initially as extremely dark, flowlike features on sloped surfaces, it is our proposal that “stains” are created in Period III by
underground liquid water, “wetting” surface
sulfur-rich materials. On the current sands of
Mars, composed of iron oxides and trace sulfur compounds, this would initially produce
sulfuric acid. The acid would then reduce the
iron-sulfur mixtures to an extremely stable,
dark black compound -- ferrous sulfide (FeS)
-- which would remain visible for years after
this initial “wetting.”70 Eventually, this black
“iron sulfide” stain would be converted back
to reddish iron oxides, via the simple process
of oxidation (Figure 30). This would come
from the trace amounts of free oxygen continuously liberated from Mars’ predominantly
carbon dioxide atmosphere by solar ultraviolet radiation.
Another validation of the tidal model may
lie in the recently published work of Kuzmin
R.O. and E.V. Zabalueva Vernadsky. In
June, 2000 the two geochemists from the Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, presented a paper at NASA’s 31st Lunar and
Planetary Science Conference on the possibility of liquid water on the current Martian surface. They proposed that the presence of water-soluble salts in the Martian regolith should
influence the melting temperature of any ice
currently trapped in the upper layers of this
icy, porous soil. In the presently observed
climate of Mars, such “icy soil” conditions
(they contend) would be expected only above
40-45 degrees North and South (the ice, in
this model, long having evaporated closer to
the Equator, in the billions-of-years history of
Mars). In the Russians’ calculations, the
salts’ presence even in this high-latitude icecontaining-soil could produce a liquid water
phase (seasonally) in a broad range of negative temperatures.71
In the tidal model, the last major source of
liquid water flowed across Mars only 65MYA
-- not “billions.” Therefore, groundwater
would not have had sufficient time to sublimate from the current Martian soil in regions
close to the Equator. In these equatorial regions, according to our model, now lie the
180-degree seabeds of two former tidallylocked oceans, whose underlying sediments
would be expected to contain a very high percentage of exactly these essential watersoluble salts needed to keep subsurface water
liquid under current Martian temperatures.
Thus, the equatorial location of the
“stains” (30 degrees plus or minus), and their
clear bi-modal 180-degree distribution, also
strongly suggest – supported by the Russians’
calculations -- that “stains” do in fact represent current aquifers of liquid, briny water
from those former “twin” Mars’ oceans.
Figure 30 – Dark (fresh) flows alongside lighter faded (older,
oxidized) flows (USGS).
27
TIDAL BULGES ON MARS: R.C. Hoagland and M. H. Bara
Implications for Martian Life – It is now
undisputed that the catastrophic events which
brought the Cretaceous to a close ~65 million
years ago, and resulted in the elimination of
the dinosaurs, also made it possible for
mammals to eventually overrun the Earth.
And, some 62 million years later – at the time
of the postulated collision/explosion of the 2nd
moon of Planet V, which (according to Van
Flandern) resulted in comets like Hale-Bopp - one of those lines of mammals was just beginning to assume eventual domination of the
Earth – the primates that would one day lead
to us.
These events, we now believe, were inexorably set in motion by the destruction of Planets K&V.
But what of Mars itself? How long did
Mars spend as a satellite of Planet V – in Period II -- before the latter was destroyed?
Was there time enough for life to actually
originate upon the planet, and if so, when – in
Period I, before its capture -- or in Period II,
sometime after? If life did evolve on Mars,
what can the tidal theory tell us now about its
subsequent development? Are there any
clues contained in the Martian tidal model
which could reveal if and when a “biological
capture clock” for Mars was ever started?
As stated earlier, we now know from MGS
of the existence of massive, regular sedimentary layers across major sections of the planet.
From these we can logically infer that Mars
experienced a protracted period of systematic
climatological change, most likely in response to cyclic alterations in its spin axis
obliquity – which laid down sediments in response to these repeating environmental cycles.72 Clearly, this period refers to Mars orbiting the sun as a single planet -- as such
significant obliquity excursions, according to
the work of Lasker et al. (1993) strongly indicate that major obliquity excursions would
have become impossible during Mars’ tenure
as a tidally captured satellite.73
28
Calculations of Mars current isolated
obliquity shifts by Wisdom et al. (1995)74 reveal chaotic excursions up to 60 degrees, and
periods on the order of 3-5 million years.
These would inevitably result in drastic
changes in Martian atmospheric density and
temperature, as polar ices melted and refroze
– thus easily producing the extensive sedimentary deposition layers MGS has now discovered.75 Taking one MGS observation “of a
thousand individual layers,” and multiplying
by the amount of time in each potential longterm cycle (~3-5 million years), we arrive at
one estimate of the span of time represented
by this pre-capture phase of Martian evolution: several billion years. This, in effect, is
equal to the ~ 5 billion years since the formation of the solar system.76 From this we can
now estimate that the time Mars spent as an
isolated planet, before capture – in other
words, the length of Period I -- was probably
most of solar system history.
So, when did Mars’ capture occur?
Based on extensive new calculations published in recent years, it appears that “chaotic
instability” of the solar system orbital dynamics can set in even after several billion
years.77 These calculations, however, have
been performed without consideration of two
former “missing” planets (this model). It is
therefore likely that our solar system’s stability would be even more chaotic with their addition to the model – particularly, if (as we
and Van Flandern propose) they once inhabited the current region between Jupiter and
Mars. This is due to Jupiter’s disproportionate effect (from its excessive mass) on all
long-term stability considerations.
If basic solar system physics is now questionable, even after billions of years of apparent “orbital stability,” then it is also theoretically possible for the “rare” planetary event
we’ve proposed in this paper to have occurred: the close encounter of Planet V with
Mars, with the subsequent ejection of another
satellite -- required to remove sufficient energy for capture. Which again raises the crucial question: when did this occur?
The capture of Mars by Planet V -through the mechanism of the ejection of another satellite -- presents a possible independent means of dating this seminal event. Such
an ejected satellite initially would have assumed its own moderately eccentric orbit of
the sun – resulting in relatively rapid resonance encounters with either Jupiter or Earth.
These close approaches, especially with Jupiter, would have radically altered its initial heliocentric orbit, resulting either in eventual
complete ejection from the solar system or
eventual catastrophic impact with another
planet.
It is our tentative proposal here that such
an impact did occur -- with Venus as the target. Because these two events are linked –
the “Mars exchange” of a satellite with Planet
V and its eventual Venus impact – this sequence of events may in fact allow a date as
to when the capture of the planet Mars by
Planet V occurred.
Venus is a unique planet. Although often
described (because of size and composition)
as a “sister planet to the Earth,” in fact the
two planets could not be more different.
From its atmospheric composition (~ 97%
CO2) to its impenetrable clouds of sulfuric
acid (more anomalous surface sulfur …), to
its surface temperature (~900 degrees F.), to
the pressure at the base of the atmosphere itself (92 times the Earth’s), Venus’ current
environment is as opposite from the environments of Earth and Mars as one could possible imagine. And, unlike the rotational periods of Earth and Mars and their direction of
rotation, Venus spins in the opposite direction
– and takes 243.7 days to make one complete
rotation.78
Magellan spacecraft radar data from its
1990-1994 survey of the planet revealed a
surprising geological discovery: some catastrophic event appeared to have completely
erased the normal range of impact craters expected from Venus’ earliest eons. The planet
appeared, instead, to have been completely
resurfaced in a geologically brief period via a
violent paroxysm of planet-wide volcanism.
The provisional dating of this event: ~500
MYA.79
It is our proposal in this paper that these
three phenomena – the cataclysmic global
melting of Venus; the reversal and slowing of
its spin; and the capture of Mars by Planet V - are the result of the same causal sequence of
events: the ejection of a Planet V satellite at
the same time Mars was captured, and the
ultimate collision a few million years later of
that massive moon with the second planet
from the sun. This collision not only radically changed the orientation of Venus’ spin
axis to its current retrograde rotation, but the
energy of the event essentially melted the entire Venusian surface. The extremely puzzling anomalous sulfur abundance seen on
Venus (as well as equally disturbing quantities of argon-40, and even chlorine in the atmosphere – perhaps a signature of a former
Venusian ocean?)80 is thus a direct result, in
this model, of the impact of a major silicate
satellite from planet V -- propelled into Venus a few million years after the exchange of
Mars at the inner edge of the (eventual) location of the Asteroid Belt.
This “causal chain,” if we are right, thus
dates Mars capture to ~500 MYA.
Remarkably, the major biological event of
terrestrial evolution was occurring coincident
with these phenomena: the sudden appearance (in less than ~40 million years) of all the
current advanced life forms on this planet,
called the “Cambrian Explosion.”81 This was
followed by ~500 million years of subsequent
evolution of those life forms, ultimately resulting in the human species.
29
TIDAL BULGES ON MARS: R.C. Hoagland and M. H. Bara
If this reconstructed timeline is correct,
then the extent of Period II on Mars – a
“warm, wet” capture interval, fed by volcanic
activity stimulated by Mars tidal situation as a
satellite of Planet V -- was essentially the
same as that for the appearance and development of advanced life on Earth. This timeline
now has profound implications for the independent evolution of intrinsic Martian life.
From the evidence we have assembled, we
now know that that large oceans existed during Period II on Mars (otherwise, there would
be no vast flow channels when their tidal lock
was suddenly released); that an atmosphere
dense enough to permit a greenhouse effect to
keep that water liquid also had to exist (otherwise, there would have been no “liquid water” in such vast amounts); and that such an
atmosphere had to have contained (at least
toward the end) abundant amounts of free
oxygen (otherwise, the iron currently dispersed across the Martian surface would not
be in its highly oxidized condition). These
observations all parallel the simultaneous development of an equivalent environment suitable for the evolution of advanced life forms
on Earth: time, temperature, liquid oceans,
and an oxygen-rich atmosphere.
It is thus our tentative conclusion, based
on the model presented here, that the tidal
epoch of Mars – Period II -- may have led
directly to a separate, spectacular evolution of
indigenous Martian organisms. In fact, there
is nothing in this data to preclude the ultimate
appearance of intelligence itself.
We only have to be willing to seriously
look.
Predictions – The “Mars tidal model”
we’ve presented offers a host of future, short
and long-term observations by which to judge
the full potential of the theory.
In October, 2001, NASA’s next unmanned
Mars mission – 2001: Mars Odyssey – ar30
rives. By December, it will have been aerobraked into its final, polar orbit and begun a
set of unprecedented surface observations.82
Some of these will be directly related to the
viability of the Martian tidal model we’ve
presented.
Odyssey carries three new scientific instruments to Mars: THEMIS, a combined visual/infrared camera; GRS, a gamma ray
spectrometer; and MARIE, the Mars Radiation Environment Experiment.83 GRS is an
instrument designed to detect gamma ray
emission and neutrons via cosmic ray-excited
stimulation from 20 primary elements – including silicon, oxygen, iron, magnesium,
potassium, aluminum, calcium, sulfur, and
carbon.
It is this GRS instrument which will furnish the first definitive test of the Mars tidal
model presented in this paper.
One of the elements GRS will detect is
hydrogen. Hydrogen makes up two thirds of
every water molecule. Thus, Odyssey will
map for the first time (to a depth of approximately one meter) the global distribution of
hydrogen on Mars, from which a global distribution of all subsurface ice and/or liquid
water will be inferred.84
The Mars tidal model specifically predicts,
based on the currently observed bi-modal
stain distribution in the MOC images, that
Odyssey’s GRS will confirm a superimposed
bi-modal distribution of subsurface hydrogen
over Tharsis and Arabia on Mars. From this,
a similar bi-modal distribution of ice and water on the planet will be inferred. Only the
tidal model can properly account for this unexpected (to all other Mars models) expected
global distribution.
But, the Odyssey observations have the
potential to confirm a good deal more.
That Planet V had to be destroyed, thus releasing Mars from its previous tidal lock configuration, is a given of this model. But, if
the destruction of Planet V and the release of
Mars was not via a collision of the two major
planetary bodies (K&V), then the only viable
alternative is a genuine explosion.
One critical test of this hypothesis will
present itself via additional impending Mars
Odyssey/GRS observations of Mars. If a major new energy source exists, based on a revolutionary physics capable of literally destroying worlds, then one side effect of this should
have been the creation of a series of highly
radioactive short-lived elements in the wake
of the Planet V Event. It is strongly implied,
based on the calculated energies required to
“explode” a planet that such a source would
of necessity involve nuclear level effects – in
which case the associated isotopes might well
mimic those found in similar catastrophic
stellar detonations.85 Because of the relatively recent time frame for the proposed destruction of Planet V (~65 MYA), several elements and isotopes from such a massive,
anomalous nucleosynthesis in the vicinity of
Mars – if it took place -- should still exist.
These may include the isotopes aluminum 26,
lead 107, iodine 129, plutonium 244 and samarium 146.
With half-lives ranging from a few hundred thousand to 150 million years, Odyssey’s GRS should be able to detect gamma
ray emission direct from some of these primary “anomalous” isotopes, if they are present on Mars in significant amounts. Other
direct decay signatures would include neutrons, as well as electrons and high-energy
helium nuclei. The second Odyssey radiation
instrument -- MARIE – should be extremely
valuable in corroborating the latter anomalous
“high-energy phenomenon” currently emanating from Mars’ surface, if they are in fact present.
The global distribution of such radioactive
isotopes (or their daughter products) should
also, in the model, conform to the observed
TES data on anomalous mineralogical distributions: divided again by the “line of dichotomy.” If present, most radioactives (or their
products) from the “Planet V Event” should
still be found covering the southern hemisphere – consistent with an explosion, in this
variation of our model. Measurement of the
remaining isotopic distribution, compared to
daughter products, should also unequivocally
determine the date of this Event.
Positive detection of such short-lived radioactive elements on Mars would raise the
stakes enormously. For, not only would the
specific tidal model detailed here be resoundingly confirmed, but a clarification of precisely how Mars former “parent” planet was
destroyed – via a “new physics,” with all its
attendant implications -- would finally be
forthcoming.86
Verification of longer term predictions of
this model depend on more aggressive
manned and unmanned Mars missions. Example: insitu measurement of the still occurring slow collapse of Tharsis back into the
mantle, from a network of seismic stations
placed at strategic points across the surface,
should confirm the “recent” date of this event
-- ~65 MYA.
The tidal model also contains a cautionary
tale for future missions and investigations. In
the current search for Mars’ elusive water
reservoirs, already some investigators (Malin
et al. – 1999) – based on a few highresolution MGS imaging of very selected regions of the northern plains87 have rejected
the idea of “ancient oceans.” The absence of
wide-spread, long-term oceanic features
along the margins of the northern plains – for
instance, fluvial-eroded scarps -- argues in
their presentations that Mars never supported
long-term, liquid, wind agitated waters on
those plains. And, in the current Martian
31
TIDAL BULGES ON MARS: R.C. Hoagland and M. H. Bara
models, if Mars ever had significant amounts
of standing water (“oceans”), they would
have had to occupy those currently-observed
(from MOLA), low-lying northern plains.
the recent equatorially constrained, bi-polar
“dark stain phenomena,” and MGS observations of “recent” (<100,000 year) ice deposits
near the Martian surface.88
But this is precisely opposite what the tidal
model argues: that Mars’ long-term oceans
were not centered around these current lowlying northern areas -- but around Tharsis and
Arabia, with a vast gap of dry land (including
portions of the northern plains) between.
Only when the tidal lock with Planet V was
broken, do we contend that a vast amount of
water rushed toward these low lying northern
Martian regions. But, such waters would also
have quickly evaporated and/or frozen – leaving no time to etch classic “oceanic signatures” across those plains.
Previously enigmatic Martian surface features are now elegantly and simply explained
by the significant tidal forces to be experienced in such a captured orbit. These include
a unique tidal erosion mechanism for the
largest canyon in the solar system – Valles
Marineris; the presence of two antipodal
“bulges” in the mantle and crust of Mars –
Tharsis and Arabia – raised by these major
tidal forces over time; and the otherwise inexplicable bi-modal distribution of current
fluvial signatures known as “stains,” as the
fossil remnants of two former “bi-modal tidal
oceans.”
The warning is quite clear: without the
correct Mars’ model, future missions and investigations run the serious risk of looking in
the wrong locations for the wrong surface
features to test the wrong geologic models.
Likewise, an aggressive effort to locate
fossils and/or evidence of former intelligence
on Mars must focus on the correct regions in
this model. Such investigations, if properly
conducted, should ultimately lead to a confirmation of our now ~500 MYA timeline for
Mars’ parallel biological development with
Earth – the discovery of a variety of truly advanced indigenous fossils (some of them
quite large), and/or even artifacts -- only possible if the tidal model is substantially correct.
Conclusions – Richard Feynman was once
quoted as saying “You know you’re on the
right track with a new idea, if you put in fifteen cents and get two dollars back.”
The Mars tidal satellite model we’ve presented here is just such a “two dollar” idea. It
for the first time accounts for a number of
baffling, enduring mysteries about the Red
Planet, while at the same time remaining consistent with each new observation -- such as
32
The Mars tidal model also accounts for the
presence of vast surface and deep, ancient
water channels flowing northward from
Valles Marineris, and now Tharsis; the vertical scarp encircling Olympus Mons; the otherwise inexplicable height and volume of the
Tharsis volcanic uplift itself; the location of
the Arabia and Elysium uplifts (at 180 and 90
degrees, respectively), from Tharsis; the formation of the Tharsis “trench”; the extreme
difference in crustal thickness between the
hemisphere’s above and below the “line of
dichotomy”; the dramatic difference in cratering patterns between these same two hemisphere’s; and the sudden fluvial excavation of
massive amounts of material from the Arabia
Terra rise.
It also accounts for the otherwise inexplicable presence of high levels of iron, iron oxides, sulfur and olivine on Mars – all major
signatures of some kind of external “collision/explosion event” recently in solar system
history.
The authors fully acknowledge that certain
secondary aspects of the tidal model may not
be testable as yet. For instance, it may not be
possible to precisely determine what precipitated the destruction of Planet V. Two possibilities have been suggested here: either, a
devastating collision with another major object also formed in this general location of the
early solar system; or, the outright explosion,
via a literal “new physics,” of Planet V. Either mechanism results in the return of Mars
to a free orbit of the sun circa 65MYA, as
mandated by this model, and leaves vital surface clues (for follow-on missions, such as
Mars Odyssey) as to this crucial sequence of
events.
now sufficiently compelling to begin a major
reassessment of our current view of Mars.
However, there is sufficient evidence now
consistent with this model to strongly infer
the prior existence of a “Planet V.” This is
based on the clear signatures of its effects
now visible in the topography and geology of
Mars, as well as other bodies in the solar system. The lack of a currently verifiable
mechanism for Planet V’s destruction in no
way diminishes the wide-ranging implications
of the striking evidence of its demise, nor the
quiet surface testimony of its profound effect
upon the body we call “Mars.”
3
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Figures
Figure 1 – Fig.1 - MOLA colorized image of Mars showing the heavily cratered southern
highlands (yellow and orange) and the smooth, sparsely cratered Northern lowlands (blue
and green).
Figure 2 - Terrestrial planets and larger satellites listed according to density. Mars is
much closer to Earth’s Moon, Io, and Europa in density than it is to Venus, the first major
terrestrial planet listed.
Figure 3 – Proposed fossilized water runoff channels. (MSSS/NASA)
Figure 4 – Proposed point source liquid water burst image from MO4-00072
(MSSS/NASA)
Figure 5 – Map showing flow image distribution.
Figure 6 – Mars captured by the larger Planet V and brought into a tidal lock relationship,
with gravitational bulges developing on opposite sides of Mars, 90 degrees to the spin
axis of Planet V. Bulges precisely correspond to the Tharsis and Arabia bulges, 180
degrees apart.
Figure 7 - Growth increments of fossils and tidal sediments on Earth record
a significantly shorter day as one moves further back in time.
Figure 8 - Colorized polar MOLA image (NASA) showing location of Tharsis (~240°)
and Arabia (~60°) bulges on Mars, 180 degrees apart around the longitudinal
circumference of the planet. Note also Elysium Bulge, roughly 90 degrees from the tidal
axis between Tharsis and Arabia.
Figure 9 – Colorized Mercator projection of MOLA data (NASA) showing the locations
and elevations of Tharsis, Arabia, and Elysium bulges (red is the highest elevation).
Figure 10 - Example of typical anti-podal tidal bulge on Earth
Figure 11 – A typical terrestrial tidal bore wave making its way up a river basin.
Figure 12 – Valles Marineris, a heretofore inexplicable trough extending one quarter of
the circumference of Mars is the largest canyon in the Solar System. The authors submit
that this a fluvial trench generated by tidal bore action.
Figure 13 – Artists conception of Mars as it might have appeared during its “Garden of
Eden” period after capture by Planet V.
Figure 14 – Olympus Mons 3D perspective image showing prominent vertical scarp at
the base of the lower flanks (NASA).
Figure 15 – The White Cliffs of Dover, a vertical, aeolian wave action terrestrial feature.
Figure 16 – Overhead view of Olympus Mons from Mars Global Surveyor. Prominent
vertical scarp nearly encircles the base (NASA/MSSS).
Figure 17 - Arthur C. Clarke’s projection of an “Olympus Ocean” lapping at the 22,000
foot-high-cliffs surrounding Olympus Mons.
Figure 18 – Water is forced into sub-crustal cavities in the ocean beds by the tidal forces
exerted by Planet V at right angles to the lines of force.
Figure 19 – MOLA generated 3D topography strip showing the dramatic difference in
crustal elevation between the heavily cratered southern highlands and the smoother
northern lowlands. Possible water stain images appear only above the crustal “line of
dichotomy.”
Figure 20 – Proposed collision event of planets V and K. Close approach of planet K
alters Mars obliquity, resulting in a debris splatter pattern 60 degrees to previous (and
current) spin axis.
Figure 21 – Hellas impact basin.
Figure 22 - Mars global Olivine distribution (Blue) (USGS).
Figure 23 – Water stain map superimposed over Olivine distribution map.
Figure 24 – The “Tharsis Trough” (MOLA).
Figure 25 – Mars magnetic field striping distribution. (NASA/MSSS)
Figure 26 – Color image of Saturn’s moon Iapetus, pitch black on one side as if from a
blast wave
Figure 27 – Outflow water channels beneath Valles Marineris (MOLA)
Figure 28 - New flood channels on Tharsis (NVS) -- 10 times larger than any previously
discovered, draining northwest.
Figure 29 – Image map showing bi-modal outflow channel distribution from Tharsis and
Arabia ocean beds.
Figure 30 – Dark (fresh) flows alongside lighter faded (older, oxidized) flows (USGS).